FOR ENGINEER John Bruce the goal is to think local and act local. Alongside wife Donna, he has spent the last nine years creating a local artists' colony at the hamlet of Kemy's Commander near Usk.

The Renaissance workshops, gallery and craft centre is based on the long barn you can see from the road as you approach Chainbridge.

John and Donna bought it nine years ago as a ruin and lived in a caravan while they gradually turned one end of it into living accommodation for themselves and their three children.

It's now almost finished and as John proudly points out: "It's supporting 14 local businesses."

At very modest rents (about £20 a week) the Renaissance centre offers local potters, sculpters, fine artists, wood workers, metal workers and textile workers accommodation in studios or workshops.

It also offers a gallery to display their work and a shop in which to sell it.

"We have about six exhibitions per year on various themes and each one lasts about six weeks. And in December we have a Christmas Craft Fair which is great fun."

One of the artists is Noleen Read who smoke-fires ceramics which she "throws" on a potter's wheel and then alters while the clay is still moist. Originally from South Africa, Noleen produces highly distinctive work featuring leaf and grass markings.

In addition to arts and crafts, Renaissance is providing entertainment for local children and sometimes their parents.

"Every summer we have an animation course for kids, and teach them the basics of the subject. They take a CD of their work away with them."

Children and adults can also learn the basics of what the artists do at workshops held throughout the year.

"Arts, crafts, music and theatre all go together and they should be accessible to local people.

"During the renaissance people didn't say I'm a potter or I'm a painter, it was all part and parcel of the same thing and that's the approach we take here."

John has fashioned the terracing down to the barn in the shape of giant, semi-circular steps. "I call it my amphitheatre: we can seat 200 people on these steps and we use the space for music and drama shows."

As you might have guessed by now, John is something of a renaissance man himself. From brass band playing and teaching to designing steering systems for Nissan cars with Lucas, he's right up there.

"I do spread myself a bit thinly, but it does make for an interesting life."

You can feel Donna groaning in the background because she has the responsibility for keeping John's multifarious projects on track. Although a big arts fan herself, she usually finds herself in management roles.

She said: "I work part-time for Monmouthshire council as a child complaints officer, do the accounts for Renaissance, run the tea shop and organise the family. It's 24/7 and sometimes you just pull the duvet over your head.

"John and I have just had our first holiday in four years in a house he helped renovate in France."

John gets involved with lots of building work through his interest in green oak structures and sustainable energy.

He has a saw mill on site and has good links with four large local estates which keep him supplied with a range of managed hardwoods.

"We cut the trees, saw the wood and construct modular frames which can be assembled into larger structures on site.

"All the added value we put into these local trees goes back into the local community.

"And all the by-products - such as shavings and sawdust - are utilised to fuel the artists' kilns."

John has a business called Branching Out dedicated to the design and build of green oak structures.

He recently constructed a £250,000 community building for Defra in the Forest of Dean. "It was a rural regeneration project for a community which didn't have a shop. On the ground floor the building has a shop selling local produce and a tea shop: on the first floor it has an IT suite.

"The building makes extensive use of heat pumps and these were financed by the Department of Trade and Industry."

John has burned the midnight oil thinking about sustainable energy and one of his inventions is a windmill featuring vertical blades based on aeroplane wings.

"Visually they are very low-impact and could overcome objections to existing windmill designs."

He sets final year projects for Cardiff University engineering students and is hoping he can progress his windmill in this fashion.

Although John's crusade is based in Monmouthshire and aimed at local people his origins are hundreds of miles north in Durham.

Trained in heavy engineering he has worked in the oil industry, the power industry (for Rayroll Parsons designing the switchgear for turbines) and for British Aersospace at Bristol and Lucas at Rassau.

It was during his aerospace years that he met Donna who comes from Bath. At this time he was also working with inventor Malcolm Newall on the Quasar - the world's first motorcycle to feature bodywork entirely enveloping the rider.

"The major manufacturers wouldn't do anything to improve protection for a rider and we set out to shake things up a bit. Because of the greater aerodynamic efficiency we were achieving speeds of up to 200 mph. Avon agreed to make tyres especially for us because ordinary ones might delaminate (shred) at those speeds."

Malcolm was based in Wiltshire while John and Donna were living in Bettws Newydd.

"The M4 and Severn Bridge was our wind tunnel," said John, laughing. BMW was obviously paying attention because elements of the Quasar principle appeared on its recent commuter bike with a roof - not that John was a particular fan of it.

"The Quasar had a feet-forward style which you can see becoming popular on many of the latest scooters, and it is nice to see a design influencing the major manufacturers."

Sadly, Malcolm Newall passed away ten years ago, the victim of a heart attack aged 54.

"It was a shock: everyone who knew him misses him. He was self-taught and a tremendously talented engineer and inventor."

But life goes on and John, 50 this year, is currently building a swimming pool, completing the terracing, shifting his wood milling equipment to new part of his site, fitting out the long barn's attic plus about 20 other things on the side.

That's a renaissance man for you - he's never quite finished.